Napoleon is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, played by Oscar®-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte’s relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.
What We Thought:
Napoleon should be titled Napoleon & Josephine because that’s what this movie is about. Those expecting a historical epic ala Braveheart, The Patriot or Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World will be greatly disappointed. Yes there are battles, but the story centers around Napoleon being a weak, little man in love with a woman, not being one of the greatest military minds in the history of mankind.
Director Ridley Scott has come out and admitted his movie isn’t exactly historically accurate. I don’t get the point of changing history in a film when the central figure in your movie has been historically famous for almost 250 years now. Napoleon is known throughout the world for being short, for being exiled and pretty much changing the face of warfare. He was a military strategist the likes of which hadn’t been seen before. He won big battles. He lost them as well. Instead of this story being his rise and ultimate fall at Waterloo, let’s mix in a love story and him putting up with a cheating wife, crawling under a table to get to her and all that. How very 2023 of you.
We’re supposed to genuinely believe that Napoleon Bonaparte watched his new bride flirt and touch another man at the dinner table in front of people and did nothing about it? In the time when kings and emperors had people killed for damn near anything, Bonaparte didn’t murder the man flirting with his wife who he eventually slept with? A man who rose from nothing to become general and emperor of France didn’t have someone taken out back and killed with the snap of his fingers? He put up with her cheating. He put up with her not bearing his heir. All of this during the time of chopping off people’s heads in front of crowds? That must be true love I guess.
The worst part is, the actual battles in the film are pretty great. There’s a lot of practical effects and lots of men on horseback and swords and cannons and what you expect for war in the early 1800s. There’s one scene with a cannonball and horse that people will be talking about. The ice battle sequence is impressive as well. The film looks beautiful (it is Ridley Scott after all), but so much of the story seems to be shown through the lens of today’s world and ideology and not told through history.
If you can’t tell I wasn’t a fan of Napoleon. I’m a history buff who loves historical dramas, but this was a big swing and a miss for me. The acting is fine and Scott’s direction is fine, but the story irked me too much. I want to use different terminology to describe the Napoleon “character”, but I’ll remain professional and not use bad words. I know letters from Napoleon to Josephine have been found, but to base an entire film around them instead of providing actual history doesn’t work for me.
The Nerds Templar 